Peter Jackson’s banned R-rated film suddenly reenters the public consciousness

You’ll recognize Peter Jackson as the creative talent behind one of the most acclaimed movie trilogies in history, an immortal piece of art whose likeness is a miracle of craftsmanship lost to modern filmmakers. But before embarking on the quest to adapt The Lord of the Rings, the Kiwi cinema icon was partial to incredibly absurd, ridiculously crude, and ironically terrible films that would either have you in stitches or give you the biggest cringe panics of your life.

We’re not even exaggerating here. Jackson started his career by making a movie that’s literally called Bad Taste, a sci-fi satirical comedy horror parody comprised of the same stuff nightmares are made of. Everything in Bad Taste is in bad taste, and Jackson does it all on purpose.

And what better way to follow that venture up than with a flick that compels a country (Ireland) to ban it altogether? Thus Meet the Feebles was born, a black comedy muppet film that checks off every box in the R-rated cinematic playbook. Well, actually, no, that would be an understatement. Words just can’t capture how incredibly reprehensible Feebles is, so you’ll have to watch it for yourself. Or don’t, if you care about your own sanity.

Now, 34 years after that cursed day, which saw the release of Meet the Feebles, the movie is blowing up on Twitter (thanks to The Muppets Mayhem), with many fans coming to celebrate this cult classic, ironically in an era where a creative would be canceled for less than one-tenth of the things this movie dares in its 100-minute runtime.

It seems that people really, really love Meet the Feebles.

I love Meet the Feebles and the namedrop was probably my favorite reference in Muppets Mayhem. The movie gets a recommendation from me, as long as you brace yourself. It’s not for the faint of heart. 😉

(Be prepared for the fox’s big number to get stuck in your head for weeks!) https://t.co/mMoSiuEZZx

— ColinLooksBack (@ColinGorman5) July 17, 2023

I love Meet the Feebles. Terrible, brilliant, awful, amazing 😁

— tom long (@tommyboyraver) July 17, 2023

To put things into perspective for you, there are only a handful of works that are banned in Ireland, and Peter Jackson’s second movie is one of them. The 1999 sexually explicit arthouse flick titled Romance is another. (Yes, Feebles is officially on par with Romance in terms of profane elements.)

If we didn’t know any better, we’d say the director was trying to over-correct those earlier films with The Lord of the Rings, but we do know better, and we’d bet our last dime that he’s still proud of both Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles to this day.